[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] has ordered [text, PDF] a US House of Representatives committee and a former staffer to cooperate with an insider trading investigation into a health care policy leak. Judge Paul Gardephe ordered the enforcement of subpoenas sent by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the House Committee on Ways and Means [official websites] and aides who are linked to the leak. The subpoenas ask for documents and information from members of the committee and from Brian Sutter, a top congressional health care aide, to assist in its insider trading investigation. Federal investigators claim [JURIST report] they have evidence indicating that Sutter, in April 2013, illegally tipped off Wall Street investment traders on upcoming, not-yet-publicized, governmental health care policy changes that could affect the trading market. On the day of the alleged tip-off, share prices of major health-insurance companies increased as much as 6 percent in the moments before the Wall Street trading markets closed. Lawyers representing Congress have not announced if they will appeal the decision.

Insider trading is an international concern among securities regulators. Last month the US Supreme Court rejected [JURIST report] an appeal in the case of two former hedge fund traders whose insider trading convictions were overturned by a lower court in December. In July the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued an indictment [JURIST report] against real estate agent Herbert Sudfeld for alleged insider trading, with charges including securities fraud, three counts of making false statements to the FBI, and aiding and abetting. In April the Supreme Court denied certiorari [JURIST report] in an appeal brought by Rajat Gupta, the former director of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., for his 2012 insider trading conviction. In January the Supreme Court rejected another appeal [JURIST report] by Gupta, leaving in place a lifetime ban on serving as an officer or director of a public company that stems from the civil case against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission.